


The Six Wives of Beverly Marsh

by bluecinderella4



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:27:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23978956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluecinderella4/pseuds/bluecinderella4
Summary: Instead of focusing on a lecture on Henry VIII, Beverly Marsh contemplates what it would be like if she was married six times. Primarily Beverly/Ben (Benverly) and possibly Richie/Eddie (Reddie), but this does briefly feature Bev married to the other Losers.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh
Kudos: 12





	The Six Wives of Beverly Marsh

**Author's Note:**

> Random little idea I had after listening to the musical “Six” (6/5 stars, would recommend). I thought how the only fictional character I know who would be involved with 6 people would probably be one of the kids from IT, but there are 6 boys and 1 girl. Since there was 1 king and 6 wives, why not just substitute the girl for the king and the boys for the wives.
> 
> Yeah, I don’t know why my mind goes where it does either.
> 
> I tried to expand more on this idea, but really couldn’t. So I just created a little kinda fic blurb. It’s mostly gonna focus on Bev and her thoughts. If anyone wants to expand on this, by all means please do.

It’s sophomore year in high school and the Losers Club somehow managed to all have history class together. This new week’s topic is some British royal again, but Beverly Marsh doesn’t really give a shit. It’s just another white dude abusing his power and there’s enough of that in modern day.

Her interest does perk up a little when she hears how the current subject was married six times. There’s even an old poem: _Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived._ Mr. What’s-His-Face (all these teachers are the same if she’s being honest) only gives brief info on the women and then moves back on to their husband.

Boring again. Damn she wants a cigarette.

She could hear someone trying not to get angry. It’s Eddie Kaspbrak, without a doubt. She can see him reading over a note someone passed him before trying to regain composure so he’s not busted by the teacher. Eddie does try to be a good student and pay attention, but Richie “Trashmouth” Tozier keeps passing him notes—whether Eddie responds or not. Richie just loves to get Eddie riled up.

Richie just loves Eddie; they’re both too fucking stubborn to admit it though.

That’s two of her “boys”. Everyone in Derry is aware of their group of friends: Her, Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier, Bill Denbrough, Stan Uris, Mike Hanlon, and Ben Hanscom. It’s hard not to notice her as a member when she’s the only girl.

What are the others up to? Mike and Stan are obviously front and focused. Stan loves to learn and Mike has to prove to his grandfather public school is a better alternative than home school. Bill? Bill’s going back and forth between paying attention to the teacher and paying attention to his writing. He’s been writing a lot lately. Richie—how the fuck he has straight A’s in all his classes should be a segment on _Unsolved Mysteries_ —is passing notes and Eddie’s trying not to respond to them and focus on the lecture.

Wait, was Ben just staring at her? Hard to tell because when she turns to look at him, he quickly turns away and sneaks in some more drawings. They have a…complicated relationship. He likes her. That’s never really been a secret, and the summer of ’89 made it all the more obvious that he does. She’s just not ready. She’s not sure if she’ll ever be, really. Ben—bless his heart—is patient though. He also respects her enough to give her space and time. He wants to make her happy. She wants to give him a chance. She also wants him to explore other options, try other girls (or boys). Ben has lost a lot of weight since joining track and it’s clear other girls have taken notice of him. He has to understand that she’s not going to be the only one for him and that teen romances never last.

He probably wouldn’t be the first guy she marries. If this Henry guy can have six wives, so can she.

Husbands! Six…nah, they’d be her wives; fuck gender norms and societal expectations.

Beverly looks to Eddie first. Yeah, he’d be her first wife. This would probably be a sham marriage though. Beverly loves Eddie and he loves her, but they could never love each other romantically. Eddie won’t accept the fact that he has actual romantic feelings for Richie and will probably marry her while they're fairly young to escape the clutches of his domineering mother. He’ll be a good husband, she doesn't doubt that. He’ll do what she says and be faithful; try to fit to the standards so that no one will suspect he ever had feelings for a man. However, she’ll want to leave him for another man. She knows Eddie’s stance on marriage though; you get one for life. She’ll get out of it via annulment. They would have never touched each other, never consummated their marriage. It’ll be easy to annul and then it’d be like the whole marriage never happened. He’ll then move on to marry a carbon copy of his mother and that woman will send him into an early grave a sad, lonely man.

She’ll leave Eddie for Bill. She’s always had a crush on Bill. He’d want to do everything to be with her, and she would for him. It’s a fleeting romantic fantasy though. When reality sets in, they’ll quickly get bored with one another. Bill will often do impulsive things; he’s very headstrong and dead set. He’ll want to be in charge on things he’ll have no control over. They'll try to be happy, but fight a lot. Eventually, he’ll fall in love with a woman who will essentially be a younger version of Beverly and then he’ll want to leave her for that woman—Beverly imagines her name will be Audrey, or Marilyn, or June, or…no, not Greta, ew—basically Bill’s newest love will a name that sounds like classic Hollywood glamour. Beverly will let Bill go to this Hollywood girl and then he’ll write a bestselling book that will thinly disguise his marriage to Beverly. However, she will be happy for his success; she knew Bill was going to be successful and she’ll be proud of him. Divorce will be good for them and they'll get along better.

 _This_ will be when Ben comes in. Okay, he's always been a supporting player in her life, but now it's different. They'll build on a romantic relationship when she's not looking for love and enjoying being single. And yet, Beverly will come to her senses about how Ben's always there, and there he’ll be. The third time’s the charm. Ben will love being married to her and do everything in his power to make her happy. He’ll also give her her freedom/space and respect all of her decisions and what she wants to do. Would they ever fight? Probably playful fighting, nothing major; he’ll want whatever’s best for her. This will be the husband she wants to have a family with and probably will. It’s when Beverly’s at her happiest that things won’t last. Ben will die tragically unexpected, protecting her in some way. This will devastate Beverly so much that she will lose the last part of him she was so close to having. When Ben and their unborn baby dies, a piece of her dies too and Beverly will never be the same again.

It’ll take a while, but Stan will be there. Poor Stan often gets overlooked. She had a vocab quiz in English the other day and the word _pragmatic_ stood out. When Bev saw that word, she thought of Stan. He’ll marry her partly out of convenience; he wants to help take care of her. Stan will help Bev get her shit together. He becomes a comfort to her that she wants to hold on for as long as she can. They’ll be content. Not happy, content. It’ll be bland: Stan plays it safe while Bev takes risks. Like Bill, Stan will eventually meet his ideal match and want to be with her. Bev will let Stan go. She wants Stan to be happy—poor guy, he always seems so sad. Stan and Bev remain close friends and she is maid of honor when he marries this other woman he'll spend the rest of his life with.

Then she’ll reconnect with Richie. They’ll meet up again, get drunk, get married, and both of them will be too stubborn to back out so they’ll just stay in it. At this point, marriage is just a piece of paper to them. Richie is the wild card. There’s no telling what will happen with him or what kind of life it’ll be, but it’ll be one hell of a party. They’ll drink too much, smoke too much, party too hard, and even try some heavy drugs once just to say that they had. They won’t sleep together. This is the “lavender marriage” she learned about. Richie’s too deep in the closet that he won’t come out. He’s always been in love with Eddie. This marriage is basically fake, like her first one was. If Richie and Eddie just married each other, it would have been real. They never acted on their feelings and try so hard to convince a world that isn’t even paying attention that they’re straight. Richie will be loud and seek attention like he always does when he tries to hide who he truly is and Bev suspects he'll even be a famous comedian. But it'll be during this marriage that Eddie dies. While this is devastating, it hits hardest on Richie. A few short weeks later, she’ll find Richie face down dead somewhere. It’ll be presumed accidental overdose, but she knows it’s intentional. Bev will be okay. She wants Richie and Eddie together and knows they will be in the afterlife.

And then there’s Mike. Like Stan, Mike is overlooked, nearly forgotten, usually last, always getting the leftovers. This time it’s no exception; the other guys have been married to Bev and now it’s his turn. They’re good together. It’s just two friends who are legally wed for tax and insurance purposes. They’ll travel together. Mike wants to see the world and he’ll take Bev wherever she wants to go. Like Eddie, Mike believes in one marriage for life. He had never settled down and so he settles for Bev. This marriage is similar to the one with Stan where him and her will be content. She doubt she’ll ever be happy again, but she’ll be okay. Mike will be her last husband. Honestly, It won’t matter who dies first. Bev suspects she’ll get cancer like her mother and probably go first, but Mike will be okay. They’ve each lived their lives and they decided to spend what’s left of them with each other. As she said before, they were always just friends who got legally married; there were never any romantic feelings.

One thing she knows for certain is that all of them are her boys and she loves each of them in her own way.

The ringing bell distracts her from her thoughts. Class is dismissed. She watches Mike and Stan talk about the lecture as they gather their things. Bill is quickly scribbling before he picks everything up in a hurry. Richie goes over to Eddie and starts to tease him about something just to get Eddie flustered (this makes her smile). Ben is meticulous about getting his things together, so he’s lingered behind.

This is when Beverly heads over to him. “Hey, New Kid on the Block.”

“Beverly!” Ben is surprised that he drops everything.

“Here,” she helps him collect his things. “Hey, so I was wondering if you wanna walk me to my next class?”

“Uh…okay,” Bev can sense the makings of a smile. She’s a sucker for his smile.

“Are you free this Saturday?” she watches his eyes widen. “Everyone’s talking about this _Silence of the Lambs_ movie, and I wanna sneak in to see it.” As he’s about to speak, she cuts him off, “I know you’re not all that into horror movies, but I just don’t wanna be alone in case it’s too freaky.”

“My cousin actually works the ticket counter. He can get us in without an ID. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble, I’ll pay for us. Popcorn too.” He smiles and extends his hand for a handshake. “Deal?”

She smiles back and shakes his hand. “Deal.” He’s the first to pull away. “Why’d you let go?”

“You…” he’s stunned to speak, “you want me to hold your hand?” She takes his hand in hers and starts to lead him down the hall.

Beverly Marsh doesn't need to base her life similar to any other man. Besides: if she ever wants marriages based on royalty, she’ll stick more with the prince and princess from a fairy tale. She gets a kind of fairy tale feeling with Ben a lot. As if he is Prince Charming to her Princess...whoever she decides to be. Who says she'll even get married anyway? There's not telling what the future holds. But when Ben smiles at her, any negative thought she has just disappears.

When it comes to Ben Hanscom, once will be enough. It will be everything.


End file.
